but, first, mike is live on capitol hill. the senate leader is the -- actually, the minority leader, what is he telling colleagues? >>reporter: he said they are very, very close. he would like to take action to avoid having americans suffer a huge tax increase in a matter of ten hours. there are a lot of anxious senators walking around wondering if or when they will get a chance to vote on something. at 1:19 senator mcconnell sent this e-mail to the colleagues and i quote, "the tax piece is complete and done last evening at 1:45. i thought the deal was sealed but this morning the white house called demanding we also turn off the sequester, those are the automatic spending cuts, to against and domestic spending kicking in, in the new year." mcconnell has outside other ways to pay for several months of that so the new congress can work that out. he is senator mcconnell. >> i reached out to the vice president in an effort to get things done. i am happy to report the effort has been a successful effort. as the president just said